Boundary meetings for new elementary schools

It's that time of year, we have two new elementary schools and two community input meetings. Dates and times are as follows:
Tuesday, October 17, 2006 @ 6:30pm-Legacy ES
Monday, October 23, 2006 @ 6:30pm-Mill Run ES
Again, they will be adjusting the boundaries.

 

I would suggest Broadlands residents watch this closely. With 2 elementary schools opening up south of us, I expect that there is a strong liklihood that they will plan to move some/all of Broadlands out of Mill Run and move us south.
I have generally found that Broadlands as a whole does not turn out nearly as many resdients at the School Board meetings as other communities, which means it may be perceived we could be moved with little backlash from the residents.

 

Cliff,
The note sent home to us said the affected schools are Belmont Station, Cedar Lane, Dominion Trail, Hillside, Legacy, Mill Run and Sanders Corner. My daughter attends Legacy, which currently as 1,050 students enrolled and a waitlist of at least 40 families. The new schools are Creighton's Corner in Brambleton and Rosa Lee Carter in Loudoun Valley Estates. Creighton's Corner will be located south of Legacy (off Minerva Drive and Creighton Rood). I'm not sure where in Loudoun Valley estates the elementary school.

Also, in the spring meetings will be held for the middle school in Loudoun Valley Estates. The schools affected by that boundary adjustment include: Mercer Middle School, Eagle Ridge Middle School, J. Lupton Simpson Middle School, Aldie Elementary, Hutchison Farm Elementary, Little River Elementary
Middleburg Elementary, and Pinebrook Elementary.

http://cmsweb1.loudoun.k12.va.us/509759161361/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=375728&C=69263

Also, for those attending the meeting at Legacy, parking fills up quickly at the school and the only entrance into the school parking lot is off Minerva Drive, which is currently the only street into/out of the Sky Meadows neighborhood of Brambleton. Just wanted to forewarn folks that traffic will be a nightmare if there's a good turnout. I expect there will be because several families who live in Brambleton were on the wait list and had to send their children to Dominion Trail.

 

It seems from the notice that the meetings are to get community input on plans that are drawn up by the School Board or its staff. Anyone know when these plans will be available to be looked at? Or are they already somewhere?

Thanks.

 

Keep an eye on the Loudoun County Schools website.

 

I have children who will be starting school soon, and I was curious how there can be a "wait list" for public schools?

Can someone shed some light on this for me?

 

It's not a wait list for education, it's a wait list for your boundary school.
There are class size limits and students are overflowed to neighboring schools.

 

So even though I live within walking distance of Mill Run and all my neighbors' kids go there, when my child starts Kindergarten he may have to go someplace else?

 

Yes, due to capacity limits on class size which are limited by the the state's standards of quality and the fact that voters would rather have new schools than trailers.

 

Please excuse the ignorance, but can someone tell me how the enrollment process works?

If we are starting kindergarten in 2007, when do we sign up - and is there a lottery to see who gets to go their boundary school, and what happens with the wait list? And can it change year to year - so if your child goes to one school for 1st grade, will it change for 2nd grade?

Any information would be helpful - just to get our ducks in a row!

Thanks!

 

There is no lottery or pre-registration. Currently, grade levels may change year to year but the goal is to keep your child in the school they enrolled in for earlier grades unless there is a boundary change, and currently rising 5th graders are typically grandfathered in by the board to stay at their enrolled school.

Your child is eligible to enroll for school beginning in late March/early April for KG registration. If all registration requirements are met and there is sufficient room you are likely to attend that school. Other grade levels for elementary school begin registration in June for the upcoming year.

Again, more information is availble under the boundary link on the school board website, including the special permission process.

 

How it works is this:

Sometime in April of 2007 (the year your child will start kindergarten), start keeping an eye on the local newspapers and the LCPS website, you'll find out when the date is for kindergarten registration.

On that day, you'll go to your home school (most likely Hillside or Mill Run - you can figure this out using this link: http://inter1.loudoun.gov/lcps/Lcps_Locate/finder.aspx ) and stand in line with all of the other parents of rising kindergarteners with various documents in hand. Regardless of where your child may eventually end up attending, you register at the home school.

If there is an overflow situation, it's last come, first shipped out. A few years ago, parents were camped out overnight over at Sanders Corner because of the rumors of possible overflow. (Edited to include the fact that in the end, no students were sent to overflow schools that year from Sanders Corner.)

As far as who gets sent to different schools, it all depends on enrollment. A school may have plenty of room for 1st graders but have 30 2nd graders too many. If, for example, your 2nd grader is told there's no room and he is going to be sent elsewhere, I believe you can petition to have your 1st grader also attend the overflow school along with him.

If your child is sent to an overflow school and space opens up at the home school, it's up to the parents to decide whether to keep the child at the overflow school for the rest of the school year or transfer him to the home school. These aren't optimal situations but that's what happens unfortunately. We here in Ashburn have it much better than our neighbors in Leesburg. Those schools are incredibly crowded and I know of dozens of kids who are being sent into Ashburn for school every day from Leesburg.

According to the Seldens Landing school website, class sizes are set as follows: Kindergarten & Grades 1-3 at 25 and Grades 4-5 at 27.

The reasons I've been given for the non-use of trailers in the county are the cost and safety issues. They are expensive and they'd rather keep the kids in the main building where they have access to bathrooms, the cafeteria and the gym. Everytime a kid needed to use the bathroom, someone would have to accompany him to the main building or he'd have to go unescorted - not something I personally would like with sex offenders in the neighborhoods. Teachers lose their resource rooms and lounges with kids behind dividers in the hallways long before considering trailers.

Finally, with the new elementary schools opening in Brambleton, Loudoun Valley Estates II and Red Cedar (Leesburg) next fall, it should take a lot of pressure off the system so hopefully, there won't *be* an overflow situation next year!

 

Another dynamic that has thrown a wrench into projecting school capacity is the fact that Loudoun has one of the largest number per children per family in the nation. It surpised a lot of people when this figure was released by the census people. Moorefield is just about to start big time and this will be a mini tysons and high density with the first condos townhomes and apartments fixing to start very soon. So the school situation could be very dynamic over the next many years.

Lee J Buividas

 

Thank you for the excellent information! I will certainly keep my eyes and ears out for further instructions, but I really hope I don't have to camp out overnight to get my child into kindergarten!!!!

 

Lee-
As I remember it, Moorefield will start with their single family/townhouse section first. The higher density high rise apts/condos were predicated on mass transit reaching the area.....rapid transit bus first then the highest density with the metro.

 

You are right Cliff except denser even in the outer parts. There are going to be garden condos and apartments started possibly next year. The dense part will come as the subway gets closer to our area which is many years off. It will be a denser community even further out from the core then we usually see around here sorta like around the brambleton town center, but different. Which by the way I love the scale of the first phase of the Brambleton town center building to the larger scale in phase two in Brambleton yet from the renderings still gives a nice street and walking scene. The trees in phase one in the sidewalks in from of the shops gives it a little bit of character and human small town scale. Oops I am getting carried away here and off topic, so I will shut up

It is sad to see how the school system is not keeping up and kids are being bused to other schools. My kids are in college so it does not effect me directly but sad none to less. Personally I would rather have the trailers.

Lee J Buividas

 

Well, the school system does have another choice and that is to put the kids on split sessions, with one group going in early in the morning and another staying at school into the very late afternoon hours. Of course, you'd still have to staff separately for both sets of kids and there would still be some overlap. You couldn't use teachers for two sets of kids like they do for kindergarten simply because of the number of hours the kids would be in school - I'm talking about the elementary level here instead of upper levels where they have block scheduling so it's more amenable to varied solutions. This is incredibly difficult for the teachers. If a western high school isn't built and opened VERY soon, you'll probably see split shifts out there as well as kids being bused to the eastern part of the county.

Given a choice, I'd rather have my kids bused to another school. I've already had the experiences of having a child assigned to a school in Leesburg and also having a shared classroom with split shifts. I'll take the bus ride over sharing any day.

 

Folks – my apologies for having missed this thread the past few weeks. Here are a few points and clarifications to keep in mind about the upcoming boundaries.

In addition to the community input meetings on October 17th and October 23rd (which are sessions conducted by LCPS staff to go over the process, answer questions, receive input, explain draft scenarios, etc.), you should be aware of the following key dates:
• November 14, 6:30 p.m. – after receiving input as noted above, staff will present its official recommendation for the elementary school attendance boundaries during the School Board meeting at the LCPS Administration Building in Broadlands
• November 21, 6:30 p.m. - Creighton's Corner ES & Rosa Lee Carter ES Public Hearing at LCPS Administration Building – this is your opportunity to testify before the School Board; however, input can also be sent at any time to the Board via email
• December 12, 6:30 p.m., School Board votes on Elementary School Attendance Boundaries at LCPS Administration Building.

Maps for all draft scenarios prepared by staff in October for discussion purposes as well as the November 14th staff recommendation will be posted on the LCPS website as soon as they are released publicly.

(Keep in mind the Board is scheduled to draw the boundaries for three other new elementary schools over the same period of time (one in Dulles South, one serving Leesburg, one in Western Loudoun), so the schedule is a lot more crowded that it appears above – we will be doing the same community input sessions and hearings for those schools as well.)

The reason enrollment was so high and students were waitlisted this year from Legacy Elementary (the term is really overflowed, as they were sent to another school in Ashburn) is that Creighton’s Corner Elementary was supposed to open this year but could not be built until issues were resolved regarding abandonment of old Creighton Road, realignment of the Brambleton golf course because of a zoning interpretation, etc. We are in the home stretch on that and hope to award a contract very shortly. There should be no wait lists next year at Legacy when we open up the two new elementary schools, but parents of students who will be in kindergarten next fall will still need to register them this spring. Nor should there be wait lists/overflows involving Mill Run as it is clear that some attendance zones currently feeding Mill Run will have to be shifted to one or both of the new schools – this won’t be easy as no one will want to leave, but that is what this boundary process is all about and I hope everyone will voice their opinions. My hope is that this boundary process will finally provide some stability to the Mill Run and Hillside attendance zones and bring their numbers down (my youngest son attended both schools, and my daughter attended Hillside, so I know how much this is needed).

Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School is located in Loudoun Valley Estates II, to the east of where Stone Hill Middle School will be opening next year. We will have maps to show you at the community input sessions and hearing.

Also, contrary to one posting, we are NOT doing a middle school boundary next spring that would affect Broadlands. We already did the boundary this past spring for Stone Hill Middle School in Loudoun Valley Estates II, and while there was serious disagreement on the School Board about other aspects of the plan, the plan I offered and the plan that was ultimately adopted will keep Broadlands at Eagle Ridge. The middle school boundary we will be doing in the spring of 2007 is for MS-5, to be located south of Route 50 – it will not impact Broadlands.

Finally, if you have any questions whatsoever, please send me an email at rfdupree@aol.com. Your emails were very helpful in reinforcing our efforts to keep Broadlands together at Eagle Ridge during last spring’s boundary process. And if you need to talk with me about the process, just send me your phone number and a good time to call.

Robert DuPree
Chairman & Dulles District Representative
Loudoun County School Board

 

There is no lottery system here. You will see a notice in local papers and on the school website for Kindergarten Registration. Registration for this school year was done in April of 2006. Over flow usually happens over the summer and as the school year begins when new people move into the area.

What I remember from the letter regarding MS was that orignally my daughter who is in 7th grade, would have to move to the new MS in the Brambleton area for 8th grade, then they went back to keeping her at ERMS, since we wanted to keep our community together. We live catty corner from Mill Run and the Nature Center. I belive the current boundary lines show Ridgeway safe to stay here so it would follow suit that it would be the same for Mill Run. just so you know, that might not always be the case. THis year there are kids who were at Belmont Ridge MS who were moved to ERMS I know it had to do with the fact that they lived closeer to the greenway, but am not 100% sure why they were moved.

I use Internet Expolorer and have the loudoun County Schools in my favorites. http://www.loudoun.k12.va.us/
I suggest you do the same. It comes in very handy! when you come to the site, page down about half way and on the right you'll see a "Label" button, click on that and you put in your street number and zip and it tells you where you are slated to go for 2007-2008.

Also here is the link to the boundary information:
http://cmsweb1.loudoun.k12.va.us/509905169119/site/default.asp